Yahoo does a Google: retires several products

Yahoo Inc is in a different position than Google is. The company for some time now has been trying to alter the companies course away from the obscurity it is currently in towards a brighter future. Changed are made to core products but also all other products that the company has created and is currently maintaining. The idea seems to be to concentrate on products that are either an asset or can become one, and to retire or sell products that do not fit into the company's plan to become a major player on the Internet once again.

Yahoo announced yesterday that it will retire several products, much like Google did in the past two year period ever since Larry Page became the company's CEO. The following products will be retired on April 30, 2013:

Yahoo! Deals - A web service that enables Yahoo users to find coupons, deals and bargains. Existing coupons can be saved up to the day of closure, but not thereafter anymore.

Yahoo! SMS Alerts - The messaging service will be retired on the same day. Yahoo suggests to use mobile apps that the company has created (like Yahoo News) instead.

Yahoo! Kids - Yahoo! Kids or Yahooligans is a web service designed with children in mind. Here they can play games, watch videos, read jokes or look up words.

Yahoo! Mail and Messenger feature phone apps - The Yahoo! Mail and Messenger apps for Java ME (Micro Edition) will be retired. Other editions of the apps will remain available.

Upcoming - Upcoming is a local event guide that you can use to find out about things that you can do in a particular place.

In addition to that, Yahoo announced that it will retire older versions of Yahoo! Mail, including Yahoo! Mail Classic, as of June 2013. Yahoo will notify all existing Yahoo Mail users that use an older version of mail about the change, giving them ample time to switch to the new mail interface. Users who switch will have access to all their data in the new account. The company notes further that users who are on dial-up Internet connections or use older browsers will be moved to the HTML-only (also called basic version) of Yahoo Mail.

What about users who do not want to switch? Those users will receive information about downloading and transferring their mail account. The option is therefore to either switch to the latest version of Yahoo Mail, or to switch to another email provider.

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About Martin Brinkmann

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook, Twitter or Google+

I switched from Mail Classic to the latest version a while ago, but still I find that retiring Classic is a bad idea. As for the Yahoo! Mail and Messenger for Java ME, the funny part is that I didn’t even knew it existed (and I have a Java phone) :) Still, as I always say: less choice is bad for users.

About gHacks

Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.